When Did Abortion Begin?

An abortion is usually defined as the termination of a pregnancy by unnatural causes, such as the removing of the fetus or the embryo from the uterus. This removal causes the baby to die. There are two main types of abortions: therapeutic abortions, and elective abortions. Therapeutic abortions are performed when the removal of the fetus is necessary to preserve the health of the woman. Elective abortions are performed when an abortion is induced for any other reason.

Abortions have actually been traced back to ancient times. There is no conclusive evidence as to who was the first individual to have an abortion, or when was the first abortion performed. Rather, historians can safely say that abortions have been performed for centuries.

The first written evidence of an abortion dates back to China over a thousand years ago. A document from the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus tracks the number of royal concubines in China that performed abortions between the years 500 and 515 B.C. Chinese myth states that as long ago as five thousand years, mercury was prescribed to induce abortions in females.

Although abortions have been induced for thousands of years, the majority of abortions that occurred during ancient times were not surgical abortions. Rather, other methods were used to induce abortions. For example, women were told to participate in exhaustive exercise, such as weight lifting, diving, climbing, or paddling. Some women were instructed to fast for days.

In some civilizations, hot water was poured onto the abdomen of a female, or the female lay on top of heated coconut shells. While historians state that some surgical abortions were performed, they were extremely rare in ancient civilizations.

Specific Citations to Abortions in Ancient Texts

There have been some specific references to abortion from ancient civilizations. For example, the Greek physician, Hippocrates, wrote a piece of work called the “Hippocratic Corpus.” The famous Hippocratic Oath is actually from this piece of work.

In the Corpus, Hippocrates forbids the use of pessaries to induce abortion. This citation in the Corpus is frequently interpreted as a warning against all abortions, and a belief that abortions should not be performed.

However, historians believe that Hippocrates forbid pessaries because they frequently resulted in ulcers, not because he was morally opposed to abortions. In fact, Hippocrates wrote of a time that he advised a prostitute on how to induce an abortion.

Another Greek writer, Soranus, wrote about abortions in his famous work, “Gynecology.” In Gynecology, Soranus advises that abortions should be performed if the health of the pregnant woman is at risk due to the fetus. He also recommended that abortions should be performed if the emotional maturity of the pregnant woman was not advanced enough to raise a child.

He further listed a number of methods for inducing abortions that he considered safe, such as the following:

• Fasting
• Bloodletting
• Enemas
• Carrying heavy objects
• Riding animals
• Jumping
• Diuretics
• Emmenagogues

According to Soranus, there were a number of unsafe methods to induce abortions as well, such as using sharp instruments to abort the baby. Sonarus also came up with a number of different recipes for herbal baths and herbal rubs that could induce abortions.

A number of other physicians and writers from ancient Greece described ways to induce abortions. The Greek pharmacologist Dioscorides recorded the ingredients for a drink known as “abortion wine,” which included such things as cucumber and hellebore among other ingredients. Pliny the Elder wrote that the refined oil of common rue could be used to induce abortions. A number of different Greek authors suggested various plants that could be used to cause abortions. For example, birthwort, a plant used to ease childbirth pain, was often prescribed to women that desired abortions.